deprecate

verb

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dep·re·cate | \ ˈde-pri-ˌkāt

deprecated; deprecating; deprecates

Definition of deprecate

transitive verb

1 : to express disapproval of deprecates such attempts at humor

2a : play down : make little of speaks five languages … but deprecates this facility — Time

b : belittle, disparage the most reluctantly admired and least easily deprecated of … novelists — New Yorker

3 : to withdraw official support for or discourage the use of (something, such as a software product) in favor of a newer or better alternative … the Google Drive app for PC and Mac is officially being deprecated and the company's developers announced in a blog post that it will no longer be supported starting December 11. Instead, you'll need to choose from one of two new apps.— Rhett Jones In the case of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, Microsoft is deprecating and removing more than 20 features.— Mauro Huculak

4a : to seek to avert deprecate the wrath … of the Roman people— Tobias Smollett

b archaic : to pray against (something, such as an evil)

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Examples of deprecate in a Sentence

movie critics tried to outdo one another in deprecating the comedy as the stupidest movie of the year deprecates TV sitcoms as childish and simpleminded

Recent Examples on the Web If Facebook's actions did indeed deprecate CHD's anti-vaccine content and divert attention away, as the suit alleges, then its systems are working exactly as intended. — Kate Cox, Ars Technica, "Anti-vaccine group sues Facebook, claims fact-checking is “censorship”," 18 Aug. 2020 Less on the positive side for some users, Catalina will deprecate support for 32-bit applications, making many old games and other apps unplayable after the OS is installed. — Samuel Axon, Ars Technica, "Apple reveals iOS 13 and iPadOS release dates—but macOS Catalina remains a mystery," 11 Sep. 2019 This may not be too helpful, though, since the Android and iOS Cortana apps themselves are being rapidly deprecated. — Jim Salter, Ars Technica, "Cortana’s not Alexa—skills are going away in Windows 10 version 2004," 28 Feb. 2020 The judge, though, said a sentence of probation would deprecate the seriousness of Flick’s crime. — Clifford Ward, chicagotribune.com, "Downers Grove man who attacked 80-year-old female relative with hatchet gets 5 years in prison for aggravated domestic battery," 30 Sep. 2019 These languages aren’t deprecated in the technical sense, but their unexpectedly long lives have created problems with things like dates. — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, "Oh Cool, the Y2K Bug Is Back," 7 Jan. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'deprecate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.